£300,000 to find new home for newts

A rare species of newt won a victory for small amphibians yesterday as highway bosses defended their decision to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on a relocation scheme.

The Highways Agency has pledged more than £300,000 on capturing a colony of great crested newts that have been caught up in a roadbuilding project.

The newts, which are a protected species, have been trapped and relocated to make way for a £51m junction improvement project on the A5117 in Cheshire.

Officials at the agency said a number of newts had been captured so far, but refused to confirm reports that only 15 of the animals had been trapped in total.

A spokesman for the Highways Agency said: "The work is currently ongoing and a number of great crested newts have been trapped."

He added: "It is not possible to give a final figure because the work is still under way.

"We have a duty to ensure newts are protected and moved to the safety of nearby ponds so as to prevent them from being harmed during the construction of the road scheme."

The money has been spent on installing 15 miles of special fencing near the Deeside Park junction to trap the newts.

They are then relocated to the safety of nearby ponds.

Dorothy Wright, an expert on newts from the Herpetological Conservation Trust, said: "When a lot of money is spent and only a few newts are saved, it would be great if that money could have been spent to increase the viability of local populations."

The latest figures suggest that there are only around 100,000 great crested newts left in the United Kingdom, with the population falling by around 20% over the past 50 years.

The newts, which are a protected species under European legislation, breed in ponds but spend part of their life cycle on the land.